New data shows porn addiction is surging in faith communities — and Ashley Jameson says healing starts with telling the truth.
People of faith often live under a magnifying glass. A public declaration of belief can feel like an invitation for constant scrutiny — where even the smallest slip becomes proof of hypocrisy, especially in an era of social media and cancel culture. Every misstep is amplified, judged, and turned into spectacle.
That pressure helps explain why pornography use among Christians remains so hidden — even as new research shows it’s widespread. Christians admittedly participating in pornography is just such a chink in our collective Christian armor, according to ongoing research, and remains a growing problem.
“Today, three in five U.S. adults, 61 percent, report viewing pornography, and half of those who use porn say no one knows. 84% of them say they don’t have anyone in their life helping them avoid pornography.” The ripple effects of pornography include a notable decline in mental health and well-being. Meanwhile, 44 percent of U.S. adults believe “watching pornography has little impact on the other aspects of an individual’s life,” according to a recent report, Beyond the Porn Phenomenon, produced by Pure Desire Ministries.
It specifies that while pornography is more prevalent among men and non-Christians, a significant number of women and Christians also participate. While men tend to have a more positive view of porn use and minimize its effects, women generally see its use and effects more negatively.
Bringing People Back From Porn Addiction
Helping people find their way back from this addiction is the work of Pure Desire Ministries and Ashley Jameson, a prime facilitator of that restoration. “I write, I teach, I train church leaders, and I have my own story with struggle, love, sex, addiction, and betrayal,” she tells Word in Black. And it’s a story she shares around the world. ”I think we have groups in 27 different countries.”
She says research shows that a particular addiction doesn’t escape anyone. “It doesn’t matter your color, socioeconomic status. It’s impacting people everywhere at a high rate. As far as healing and recovery, ministries from my own experience are in greater numbers in predominantly white churches.”
What Porn Addiction Does to the Brain
One of the things that has shocked her while training for this job is the physical effect on the brain. ”It physically puts holes and atrophies your brain. On brain scans, researchers see a brain using pornography compared to a brain on heroin, and they look the same, if not worse. It’s actually atrophied,” she says.
“It helped me understand that when we’re operating in this way, we’re actually functioning with broken brains. We can now see that our behaviors can change the way our DNA sends messages and set up our children and grandchildren to struggle, which is why I see generational curses play a part in this and our generational history.”
She added more information from the same study. “I think it said 39% of Gen Z are struggling. And out of all those people who are struggling, 25% of men, 40% of women. And most of the Gen Zers said they don’t have anybody to help them. And so I think that’s such a huge opportunity for our pastors, our parents, and our teachers. Kids are getting exposed so young to pornography and by accident.”
The Hope on the Other Side of Recovery
But there is good news. “Once the work is actually done, bringing God into it, doing the physical, practical work to renew those pathways through neuroplasticity, they can re-scan the brain, and they can see it filled back out again, like physically. So that was shocking to me, but it gave me so much hope because I like to know there’s an answer.”
Pure Desire’s website offers a plethora of resources for sheer information, multiple groups to suit every situation, and further options of all kinds.
For clarity, Jameson described the addiction or struggle as “something that’s been going on a while, something you said you wouldn’t return to but find yourself repeatedly returning, even if there are long gaps in time. Is it hurting you or others?”
Struggling to Address Pornography
Pure Desire’s figures come from its partnership with Barna, which reports that the Christians surveyed, 75% admit to using pornography, and it doesn’t matter if they’re in church or out. And 67% of pastors admit to using it
“And those are our leaders. And this is why it’s hard to talk about in the church. Because we don’t know where to get help without being removed from our roles. And we need to have availability for people to get help with this without automatically being removed.”
Trauma and Healing
Jameson’s experience stemmed from having been sexually assaulted as a child, the pain and shame of which led to her looking for love in all the wrong places. She calls it a love and sex addiction. She finally fell in love and married her husband. Four years into the marriage, she realized her husband had an addiction to pornography that he’d been hiding. All of this led to her finding a path to healing for herself and also for her husband. That pathway was Pure Desire.
“We may now know how sexual struggles are impacting us, our ministry, our ability to make disciples, to parent, to be in healthy relationships. And unfortunately, the divorce rate connected with pornography use is astronomical,” Jameson says. “But I, from experience, can promise you that your desire and your physical brain and your heart, your mind, body, soul, all the things God tells us to address can change and that we can live a healthier, more connected life and it not feel like we’re just white knuckling it or we’re in a prison of giving up our things that we use to cope.”
She says those affected should just trust the process, especially those in a secret struggle, and remember “we can really only take our kids as far as we’ve gone. And so the same struggles that we have, just like the Bible tells us, our kids will likely struggle with if we don’t have the courage to step out and make those changes so that we can help our kids or grandkids.”
